Overview
One of the best methods to practice Python coding is to study some code and try them out yourself. By doing a lot of code exercises, you will get a much better understanding of what it really does.
In other words, learning by doing. To help you improve your Python coding skill, I’ve created a program below which is using the API from CommandLineFu.com
CommandLineFu API
A common first step when you want to use a Web-based services is to see if they have an API.
Luckily for me, Commandlinefu.com provides one and can be found here:
“The content of commandlinefu.com is available in a variety of different formats for you to do what you like with. Any page which contains a list of commands (such as the listings by tag, function or user) can be returned in a format of your choice through a simple change to the request URL.”
The example URL that they provide is:
where: command-set is the URL component which specifies which set of commands to return.
Possible values are:
- browse/sort-by-votes
- tagged/163/grep
- matching/ssh/c3No
Format is one of the following:
Also Read: Java Menu Driven Program for String Operations
- plaintext
- json
- rss
I prefer using the json format and that is also what I’m using in the program below.
Creating the “Command Line Search Tool”
I think we have all the API information we need, so let’s get to it. The program is well documented and should be straightforward.
Open up a text editor, copy & paste the code below. Save the file as: “commandlinefu.py” and exit the editor.
- plaintext
- json
- rss
I prefer using the json format and that is also what I’m using in the program below.
Creating the “Command Line Search Tool”
I think we have all the API information we need, so let’s get to it. The program is well documented and should be straightforward.
Open up a text editor, copy & paste the code below. Save the file as: “commandlinefu.py” and exit the editor.
#!/usr/bin/env python27
import urllib2
import base64
import json
import os
import sys
import re
os.system("clear")
print "-" * 80
print "Command Line Search Tool"
print "-" * 80
def Banner(text):
print "=" * 70
print text
print "=" * 70
sys.stdout.flush()
def sortByVotes():
Banner('Sort By Votes')
url = "http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse/sort-by-votes/json"
request = urllib2.Request(url)
response = json.load(urllib2.urlopen(request))
#print json.dumps(response,indent=2)
for c in response:
print "-" * 60
print c['command']
def sortByVotesToday():
Banner('Printing All commands the last day (Sort By Votes) ')
url = "http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse/last-day/sort-by-votes/json"
request = urllib2.Request(url)
response = json.load(urllib2.urlopen(request))
for c in response:
print "-" * 60
print c['command']
def sortByVotesWeek():
Banner('Printing All commands the last week (Sort By Votes) ')
url = "http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse/last-week/sort-by-votes/json"
request = urllib2.Request(url)
response = json.load(urllib2.urlopen(request))
for c in response:
print "-" * 60
print c['command']
def sortByVotesMonth():
Banner('Printing: All commands from the last months (Sorted By Votes) ')
url = "http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse/last-month/sort-by-votes/json"
request = urllib2.Request(url)
response = json.load(urllib2.urlopen(request))
for c in response:
print "-" * 60
print c['command']
def sortByMatch():
#import base64
Banner("Sort By Match")
match = raw_input("Please enter a search command: ")
bestmatch = re.compile(r' ')
search = bestmatch.sub('+', match)
b64_encoded = base64.b64encode(search)
url = "http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/matching/" + search + "/" + b64_encoded + "/json"
request = urllib2.Request(url)
response = json.load(urllib2.urlopen(request))
for c in response:
print "-" * 60
print c['command']
print """
1. Sort By Votes (All time)
2. Sort By Votes (Today)
3. Sort by Votes (Week)
4. Sort by Votes (Month)
5. Search for a command
Press enter to quit
"""
while True:
answer = raw_input("What would you like to do? ")
if answer == "":
sys.exit()
elif answer == "1":
sortByVotes()
elif answer == "2":
print sortByVotesToday()
elif answer == "3":
print sortByVotesWeek()
elif answer == "4":
print sortByVotesMonth()
elif answer == "5":
print sortByMatch()
else:
print "Not a valid choice"
When you run the program, you will be presented with a menu in which you can make your choices.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Command Line Search Tool -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Sort By Votes (All time) 2. Sort By Votes (Today) 3. Sort by Votes (Week) 4. Sort by Votes (Month) 5. Search for a command Press enter to quit What would you like to do? ... ...